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Valentine’s Day Calligraphy Exchange | Norfolk, VA Calligraphy

Are you excited for Valentine’s Day stories of Christen past? You should be.

I was in middle school when I had my first supposed valentine on Valentine’s Day. I gave my “boyfriend” (who I saw like… every 2 weeks? It was a pretty serious relationship, obvs) a handmade card. And he had forgotten it was Valentine’s Day. #MyLife

One year I was super into Powerpuff girls–I still remember giving Chris, my crush at the time, the special “Will you be my Buttercup?” card and when confronted played it off like “Oh, it was in the package, I ran out of Bubbles and Blossom so I guess you haaaaaddddd to get this one, but I’ll be your 5th grade girlfriend if you want.” Just kidding. I didn’t say that last part because I was shy as crapppppp when I was a kid.

When I was in college, I thought I would go on a “spiritual retreat” with Jesus to Colonial Williamsburg. After church one day, I just decided to hop in the car and figure out how to get there. Apparently Valentine’s Day was not on my radar. So there I was, strolling through Williamsburg, praying, journaling… and passing LOTS of couples… on Valentine’s Day. I even ran into a few friends who said “wait… you’re here… by yourself?”

I did have one kick-A Valentine’s Day, though. My friend Breanna got married in California on February 17th or something, so me and four friends hopped on a plane together and flew to LA on Valentine’s Day. It was an amazing trip–I stepped in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, ate an orange I picked from a tree, antique shopped and went to a beautiful garden wedding.

Despite the February 14ths of the past, I still do love Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s because I’m allowed to eat lots of chocolate (you don’t have to tell me twice). Or maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day is a crafter’s paradise.

Valentine crafting is THE BEST. You should have seen my living room making these Valentine exchange cards. The lightbox was out, ink was everywhere, little paper heart cutouts and 2084587 envelopes spewed across the floor, glitter on my forehead–I was in my happy place. I used to LOVE Valentine’s Day parties in school. I’d get to design and glitter the crap out of my own little mailbox that sat on my desk and I got to distribute my Valentines. Sometimes I would make my own, other years I would buy them (hence the Powerpuff Girls).

So you can only imagine my excitement when one of the Flourish Forum exchanges was “love letters.” Oh the possibilities. My past few exchanges have been pretty time consuming because I want them to look awesome. I tried to think of ways to simplify this time around and I suppose I managed to do that. I actually LOVE how these came out. I feel like they are a nice balance of simple and beautiful. I received my list and saw that I had a dude on my list (last time I had a guy on my list I accidentally addressed him as “Ms.” and send him a pink envelope. Granted, his name was Robin and I was in my How I Met Your Mother phase, so can you blame me?) so I wanted my letters to be somewhat gender neutral.

If you haven’t noticed yet, mint green is currently my favorite color. My phone case is mint green. My laptop case is mint green. My calligraphy pen has mint green strokes on it. I have a mint green cardigan. I want mint green snow pants. I LOVE it. So when I was stalking Paper Source’s envelopes, I was immediately drawn to these beauties. I decided to go with mint, white and black with a touch of kraft paper.

I lined the envelopes with this sparkly black paper for a little extra oomph when my flourish friends open their letter. It took me a while to figure out what my little cards should say. At first I thought “Roses are red, violets are blue, calligraphy is neat and so are you.” Too many words. So I decided to stick to four.

Calligraphy is my Valentine. It finally happened. I have a Valentine. Calligraphy is always there, just waiting to spend time with me. Not even Titivillus himself can come between this relationship. Oh, who is Titivillus? He’s a demon jerk face known to induce errors in calligraphy and scribe work. He’s also the reason I had to write Angelina’s envelope twice. Apparently Cincinnati has three Ns. Anyway. I spiced these up a bit by carving out hearts with an X-Acto knife and writing the initial of each exchanger on the kraft paper for a personal touch.

I loved the white accents on the envelopes with the little xoxo and heart shaped flourishing. These are simple, but I just think they are so sharp.

Time for shameless advertising–if you want to send your sweetheart (or your mom, I’m sure she’d love it!) a fancy envelope with some thoughtful words, you can place an order for a custom design here. One color ink envelopes are $5 and two color ink envelopes are $6. Custom cards are also $5. Get them while they’re hot!